Yesterday, my daughter was in a terrible mood. She didn’t eat enough, and she skipped her nap. The littlest things would trigger the biggest tantrums. Whoever happened to step on the landmine of her bad mood was the person she thought was causing the bad mood. For a three-year-old, this makes perfect sense. Screaming from […]
My daughter recently turned three, and this is an age of great leaps in communication skills for her and her friends. When she started going to school in January, she experienced conflict with other classmates that sometimes turned physical, with her on the receiving end of pushes, head-bonks, bites, etc. The first time this happened, […]
The other day, my daughter told me that she doesn’t like two of the kids in her class because one of them asks why too much, and the other cries. She then labeled the two children as “The Why-er” and “The Crier.” I restrained myself from laughing at the irony of this, since she probably […]
A common relationship dynamic is the loaded question. You want something specific from your partner. Instead of stating the desire, you ask a seemingly innocent question with a correct answer in mind. If the question is answered incorrectly, you punish your partner for getting it wrong. Maybe you want a romantic evening on Valentine’s Day, […]
I’ve written before about why ultimatums rarely work in relationships. Relationship ultimatums tend to go along the lines of “Change your behavior, or I leave.” Most of these ultimatums don’t work because the person issuing the ultimatum isn’t ready to follow through with the threat to end the relationship; however, there are times when an […]
Lately, my daughter is trying to figure out how to spell things. She knows how to spell her name out loud, but when it comes to putting the physical letters together, her instinct is to make the letters go from right to left. Seeing her do this made me realize that I’ve taken for granted […]
When you meet someone that you want to be liked by, you might be tempted to hide your limitations for fear that you won’t get a chance to have a relationship with that person. This holds true in personal and business relationships. You perceive that this person will reject you if you can’t give them […]
The way a person drives speaks volumes about they way communicate. Today, for example, I was at a four-way stop sign. There was a car stopped at the same time, directly across from me. The driver started to move forward without flashing a turn signal, so I assumed that she, like me, was going to […]
*3/26/2014* This post was originally titled “Why Do People Give the Silent Treatment?” The previous title was not accurate in describing the contents of this post, since this post is really about only one aspect of the silent treatment: control. This post is directed toward the person on the receiving end of the silent treatment […]
With plants, if you water too much or too little, the results are similar- the plant will get stressed, and if nothing changes, will die. People who over-water their plants tend to not trust that the plant will make it without their constant tending. They just keep pouring water on, and the roots can’t breathe, […]